By the time I was done with the the Missoula Half Marathon back in July, I knew this running thing would be a regular deal, not a one shot thing.  I like the way my new level of fitness feels.  Remember those old BowFlex commercials that ran nonstop on television back in the 90s (maybe they’re still on)? The ones with the guy saying “I’m 40 years old and I’m in the best shape of my life”?  Well, I can say the same thing without hesitation. (Not the BowFlex part.)  It feels good. Running feels good. And taking on the challenge of trying a wealth of new craft beers is a much less guilty pleasure. It almost seems like a reward.

I needed a new goal after the Half Marathon and adopted a rather modest one: 1000 total miles in my first year of running.  As of today I’m sitting on 840 miles with a little more than 2 months to go.  From a pure statistical standpoint it should be no problem.  But statistics ignore life.  Thanks to work and mother nature (not to mention this earth rotation thing) my running plummeted in September and October.  What had been 100 to 120 mile months (when not being bludgeoned by pneumonia) dropped to 90, then 70. Now I’m sitting on (gasp!) only 40 for October.  Even with a long run planned for tomorrow morning, it is going to be an ugly month.  My Garmin 405 is feeling lonely.  Bad weather is on the way.  Still, I’ll get there!

A couple of lessons learned in 840 miles:

1. Adding distance is way easier than adding speed. I went from 2-3 miles in January to 13+ miles by mid-April and it never really seemed that hard.  A lot of that was simply the excitement and determination of seeing if I could do it. Some of it was fear. I didn’t want to fail at the half marathon, so I made sure the distance would be no problem by the time July rolled around.  But speed?  Whole different story.  Sure, there was a huge initial drop from 10:30/minute miles to 9:00 minute miles in that same time frame as my fitness improved, but gaining more speed has been a much bigger challenge. I will never be fast, but I do want to improve.  I’ve managed to drop to sub 8:00 miles for 5K distances and sub 8:30 miles for 7-8+ mile runs.  Eventually I’d like to get down closer to 8:00 miles for a half marathon distance, but that is a huge challenge. Perhaps I started this running thing too late. Regardless, it isn’t interfering with my enjoyment of it all. 

2. Heat sucks. My favorite temperature for running is somewhere between 45 and 55 degrees. I don’t even mind 30 to 45 as long as the wind isn’t blowing. 55 to 65 is pretty good, too. Start getting over 70, though and I start to not like it.  Over 80? Uggh. It completely saps your energy and makes you wonder what the hell you’re doing. You start to wonder why you’re having so much trouble running, though the answer is obvious. I don’t do heat. 

Any other beer runners out there?  Drop me a line.